Every attempt is made to provide a comprehensive report of ongoing
activities in relation to farm invasions, but many incidents are unreported due
to communications constraints, fear of reprisals and a general weariness on the
part of farmers. Farmers names and in some cases, farm names, are omitted to
minimise the risk of reprisal.

NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF: Pegging of
land has increased, particularly in the eastern part of Centenary and a number
of work stoppages have occurred.Several farms in the Mutepatepa area have
been reinvaded.About 34 commercial farms are experiencing work stoppages in
the Macheke / Virginia area.REGIONAL REPORTS:

There were no
reports received from Mashonaland West (South) and Matabeleland Regions.

Mashonaland Central Centenary - Pegging of land has increased,
particularly in the eastern part of the district. There have been a number of
work stoppages and 3 farms are currently being prevented from carrying out land
preparation. Mvurwi - Another farm labour strike took place on Forrester F,
as farm workers were unhappy with the new Farm Assistant. Illegal occupiers
intervened and physically removed the Farm Assistant with all his belongings
from the farm. Mutepatepa - Several farms in the area have been reinvaded.
Agritex are pegging on a wheat land on Dunaverty. Illegal occupiers on Katanya
were disgruntled with the fact that they had been excluded when plots were
issued on the farm and have demanded that Agritex rectify the situation. A brick
kiln at Bourtonvale was shut down when an illegal occupier stated that they were
working on his land and another illegal occupier accidentally burnt 3 ha of
grazing on the farm. Shamva - Farm workers at Robin Hood continue to be
harassed by illegal occupiers from neighbouring farms and although police have
responded and left a presence at the farm, no arrests have been made. Agritex
have pegged Whapley, and DDF have drilled a borehole for illegal occupiers.
Permanent structures are being erected by illegal occupiers. Mazowe /
Concession - Illegal occupiers at Belgownie have built more huts around a land
prepared for tobacco. In an attempt to prevent work at Rydale, illegal occupiers
turned off wheat irrigation sprinklers and threatened farm
workers.

Mashonaland West North Ayshire - Minihaha Farm was fast
tracked. Doma - Section 5's are being issued in the area.

Mashonaland EastBromley / Ruwa / Enterprise - There has been an
increase in activity of illegal occupiers.Macheke / Virginia - Over 34
commercial farms are experiencing work stoppages. Illegal occupiers on Paradise
Farm instructed the owner to move all cattle off the farm. DDF are drilling
boreholes for illegal occupiers on Castledene Pines. 40 illegal occupiers on
Royal Visit have taken over the security base and are demanding that they have
access to the homestead.Marondera South - 40 illegal occupiers were
allocated plots on Chipesa. 160,000 bricks have been stolen by illegal occupiers
on Ponderosa. Police refuse to respond. Aggressive illegal occupiers broke two
booms on Monora and threatened to take over the farm.Marondera North - War
vet Giant allocated plots to illegal occupiers on Sunny Fountains. The farm
workers objected and the situation became tense. Illegal occupiers left when
police and Lands Committee informed them that they should not have been
allocated plots. An aggressive group of illegal occupiers surrounded the
homestead of Rapids Farm. Police responded. 300 metres of fencing was stolen on
Cambridge. The owner of Loquat Grove was threatened by illegal occupiers and
told to vacate the farm. The situation became tense and resulted in the owner
locking himself in the homestead. Neighbouring farmers responded and were
detained by illegal occupiers. The Lands Committee and a policeman defused the
situation. Illegal occupiers lit fires on Seaton Farm and stole fencing poles
and wire. An aggressive group of illegal occupiers barricaded the road on Rapids
farm and proceeded to camp outside the homestead. Illegal occupiers chanted and
threw rocks on the homestead roof. Police eventually responded and moved illegal
occupiers outside the security fence of the homestead. The situation remains
unresolved.Wedza - 20 aggressive illegal occupiers have moved onto Plymtree.
Pegging and felling of trees is occurring on Bristol. Agritex officials are
pegging on Fels. A weaner was slaughtered by illegal occupiers on Pultimore.

Manicaland Chipinge - The owner of Wolfscrag Farm was accused by
illegal occupiers of being un-cooperative and this has resulted in illegal
occupiers demanding the whole farm. Mutare - A large group of illegal
occupiers, escorted by an unarmed policeman arrived on Brooksville and started
pegging in a land which the owner had prepared for wheat.

Masvingo
Masvingo East & Central - Illegal occupiers entered the security fence
and made threats and demands to the owner of Bon Accord for a whole night.
Illegal occupiers beat 7 farm workers. Police reacted and the assaulted farm
workers have laid charges. Illegal occupiers are clearing lands and pegging on
Dromore Farm. Mwenezi - Agritex officers are cutting fences on Rienette
Ranch to gain access to peg the farm. Chiredzi - There has been an increase
of poaching on Mugwezi Ranch and illegal occupiers continue to harass the
owner.

Midlands Gweru East - A fire started by an illegal occupier
on Oaklands Farm, with the intent to clear land to plough for crops, resulted in
the destruction of the owners cut and baled hay. Mvuma - Building, wood
cutting and burning are continuing in the area. Somabhula - Illegal occupier
activity on all properties has increased.

African
governments are preparing to demand reparations forslavery from Western
nations, while doing little to assistthe current victims of the slave trade
within their veryborders. The African Group, which consists of 53
members,recently submitted a proposal to a U.N. committee, referringto
slavery as "a crime against humanity" and demandingcompensation from former
colonial powers. Advocates ofreparations insist that the West acquired its
prosperity inpart by stealing resources from the African continent.
Theseproponents maintain that slavery resulted in lasting damageto
African nations, including their large burden of foreigndebt. Supporters of
reparations also believe that such debtsshould be forgiven to make amends
for previous injustices.

The proposal was submitted in U.N.
preparatory meetingsfor the World Conference Against Racism,
RacialDiscrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which
isscheduled to be held in Durban, South Africa, from Aug. 31to Sept. 8.
In light of this increasing movement forcompensation, Western governments
are threatening todowngrade their presence at the upcoming conference.
Westernnations fear that to accept the principle of reparations fora
practice which ended over 135 years ago will lead to anendless stream of
lawsuits.

However, instead of trying to evade the issue, the
Westshould embrace it. That is, if African states want to open adialogue
on slavery, this should be encouraged. The West canuse this opportunity to
cast an international spotlight onthe current practice of slavery which
still rears its uglyhead in West and Central Africa, and in
Sudan.

In late March and early April, as a result of
thedisappearance and recovery of the Nigerian-registered ship,the
Etireno, news reports abounded with information on thehorrifying traffic in
child slaves which still plaguesAfrica. Children are taken from poor nations
such as Benin,Togo, Mauritania and Mali, and are used and abused
asdomestic servants or plantation workers in wealthier nationssuch as
Ghana, Ivory Coast and Gabon. UNICEF estimates thatapproximately 200,000
children are sold into slavery everyyear. Furthermore, slavery and genocide
are regular featuresof the war in Sudan.

All the shocking facts
regarding the current practicesof slavery in Africa ought to be at the
forefront of anydebate on reparations. Instead of pointing an
accusatoryfinger at the West for past crimes, African leaders
mustdemonstrate their horror of slavery by doing all they can tostop the
vicious "crimes against humanity" which are dailyfeatures of the lives of
some of their citizens.

Friends of freedom and the rule of law in Africa south ofthe Sahara: You
should read this lead editorial in theWashington Times this morning but
substitute Mugabe forMilosevic. The war crimes of Mugabe, terrorism,
ethniccleansing and just plain murder of 20,000 to 40,000
minoriytribesmen should put him at the head of the list at
theHague.

-----------------------------------------------------------

MILOSEVIC
UNDONE

House
Editorial

-----------------------------------------------------------

Many
of Slobodan Milosevic's victims are not alive to seehim tried for war crimes
at Yugoslavia's International WarCrimes Tribunal at The Hague. But for those
in the Balkanswho survived his atrocious campaigns of ethnic
cleansing,the Serbian government's move yesterday to force thehandover
of the dictator to officials of the U.N. War CrimesTribunal serves as a good
first step toward putting thebloody decade in the past. The handover
followed anexecutive order made last weekend to clear the way for
hisextradition. No small credit goes to the Bush administrationand
Congress for letting Yugoslavia know that theinternational trial of a
dictator who has jeapordized thesecurity of Europe and incited wars which
led to the deathsof thousands was not optional.

Pressure on the
Serbian government ahead of today's EuropeanUnion (EU) donor conference,
which determines the amount offinancial assistance to be given to
Yugoslavia, was a keyfactor in the Serbian government's decision to produce
theexecutive order and the handover. "It is not a question ofour
preference," Yugoslavian Ambassador Milan Protic said inan interview
yesterday. "It is a question of theexpectations and the conditions that were
set up for us bythe international community, and especially by the
Americanadministration. So, yes, we would much rather have a trialin
Belgrade, especially for Milosevic. And since we were notable to get that
type of understanding on Milosevic, we hadto change some of our priorities
or reinterpret some of ourpriorities."

On the eve of the conference,
the Yugoslav ConstitutionalCourt, dominated by judges from the Milosevic
regime,ordered a suspension of the extradition order, putting thecountry
in a tenuous position ahead of today's meeting. Butwith millions of dollars
depending on Belgrade's compliancewith The Hague, the Serbian government
decided to takematters into its own hands. Yugoslavia is seeking more
than$1 billion at the EU conference. The money would help
inreconstruction projects and economic stabilization of thecountry. The
United States already certified in April thatthe Belgrade government had
reformed enough to be eligiblefor $50 million in U.S. aid this year.
However, thiscertification required that Yugoslavia cooperate with
thetribunal by surrendering indictees or assisting in theirarrest.
Ironically, Mr. Milosevic was captured and put in alocal jail just prior to
the United States' certificationdeadline. To ensure that Yugoslavia knew
that action was notenough, the United States waited until Wednesday to
announcethat it would even attend the conference, and made clearthat a
new pledge of around $107 million would hinge onBelgrade's actions. No
wonder there was a re-evaluation ofpriorities.

Victims killed during
the dictator's ethnic cleansingcampaign continue to be found daily in mass
graves inSerbia. Police have now admitted that Mr. Milosevic orderedtop
police and military commanders to remove all evidence ofcivilian corpses
resulting from his attacks on Kosovo thatcould be subject to investigation
at The Hague court. Theresult was a mass grave of up to 800 bodies of
ethnicAlbanians in a police training camp in Batajnica outside
ofBelgrade.

The Serb government should be commended for cooperating
withthe tribunal, and putting legal questions about Mr.Milosevic's
legacy where they belong. But the constitutionalcourt's ruling shows that
Mr. Milosevic's influence on thecountry is still present and must be
completely wiped out.The United States must continue to remind Belgrade
thatmoney is not earned through half-hearted
justice.

-----------------------------------------------------------This
article was mailed from The Washington Times

Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav
dictator who set the Balkans ablaze and caused the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of people, was in detention in the Hague last night after being flown
out to face the UN war crimes tribunal there. Crowds began to gather outside the
prison in the Dutch coastal town of Scheveningen minutes after a terse
announcement from Belgrade that he had finally been surrendered to face justice.
He is the first former head of state to be extradicted to a war crimes tribunal.
"The former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been handed over
to the Hague authorities," said a spokesman for the Serbian prime minister Zoran
Djindjic.

The dramatic news was confirmed
later by the tribunal as it prepared to receive its first indicted former head
of state: "This marks a very important moment in the life of this institution,"
said spokesman Jim Landale. Mr Landale said Mr Milosevic would appear in court
early next week, probably on Monday. He is expected to undergo medical checks
before being allotted a cell in the UN-controlled remand centre of the Dutch
prison.

The move came as international
donors prepared to convene to pledge up to $1.3bn of aid to reconstruct
Yugoslavia's economy. The US had threatened to block aid unless he was handed
over. In a statement last night, the White House said the transfer "signals the
commitment of the new leadership in Belgrade to turn Yugoslavia away from its
tragic past and toward a brighter future as a full member of the community of
European democracies. The US stands ready to assist the people of
Yugoslavia."

Mr Milosevic was taken from
Belgrade's central prison and flown by helicopter to a US-run airbase in Tuzla,
Bosnia, where an RAF plane flew him to the Netherlands. The handover of the man
most closely associated with Balkan atrocities and ethnic cleansing represents a
giant step forward for international justice, which failed to secure a trial for
the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The Hague court had long been
criticised for failing to bring high-ranking suspects to justice. Over its seven
years it has concluded 12 cases and has 38 suspects in custody, but the leaders
charged with ordering the worst atrocities of the Balkan wars had until
yesterday escaped its net.

Western governments were caught off
guard by the suddenness of the move after an earlier announcement of new delays
when Yugoslavia's constitutional court, packed with Milosevic loyalists, ordered
a freeze on proceedings. But there was immediate delight. President George Bush
hailed the news as "an unequivocal message to those persons who brought such
tragedy and brutality to the Balkans that they will be held accountable for
their crimes". Jacques Chirac, the French president, called it an "act of
justice." Tony Blair, Nato's leading hawk on Kosovo, called it good news, while
the German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, hailed a "triumph" and praised the
Yugoslav government for a difficult, but vital, decision.

But in Belgrade a furious row
erupted, with President Vladimir Kostunica insisting that he had not been
informed as the government met in emergency session to swiftly extradite the
former leader. Zarko Kosac, the Serbian deputy prime minister, said the decision
to hand over Mr Milosevic was "entirely legal and constitutional" under Serbian
law. "It was a decision of the Serbian government. An absolute majority of the
cabinet and the ministers voted for it." Mr Kosac said: "Politicians sometimes
have to lead their nation. I am not afraid of the reaction of my people. It is
in the interests of democracy." About 3,000 pro-Milosevic supporters gathered in
protest in the centre of Belgrade last night, chanting "Uprising,
uprising".

Mr Milosevic, 59, was indicted in
May 1999 at the height of Nato's bombing campaign to force his army out of
Kosovo. He is accused of responsibility for the mass killings and expulsions of
ethnic Albanians. Prosecutors have said they also plan to charge him for war
crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia, when Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in
the early 1990s as he openly encouraged Serb nationalism to fan hatred in the
then multi-ethnic country. "This is where we have always said he belongs," said
a Nato spokesman in Brussels. "The EU called it a "courageous" move.

Mr Milosevic's lawyers had argued
that a government decree on cooperation with the tribunal, pushed through by
reformist ministers at the weekend, violated a constitutional ban on the
extradition of Yugoslav citizens. Branimir Gugl accused the authorities of
kidnapping his client. The former Yugoslav president had been in prison since
April 1 while allegations of abuse of power and corruption were being
investigated.

From News24 (SA), 29
June

Unions mull strike over fuel price
hikes

Harare - Zimbabwe's main labour movement said on Thursday it
was considering calling a strike next week to protest against drastic fuel price
hikes which President Robert Mugabe's government has refused to reverse. Nomore
Sibanda, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said
Monday and Tuesday were likely dates for a strike. "The official position is
that we don't have a date yet. The ZCTU general council...will sit down on
Saturday to consider the feed-back and to announce the details," he told
Reuters. "A consensus may be emerging...for national protest to take place on
Monday and Tuesday," he said.

Political analysts warn that a big national strike or streets
protests could raise the political temperature close to boiling point. Political
tensions have barely abated since early last year when a violent campaign blamed
largely on supporters of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party left at least 31 people
dead before last June's general election. The ZCTU gave the government 14 days
to scrap the 70 percent fuel price rise the state oil importer National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) imposed on June 12 due to higher import prices and
acute fuel shortages.

The government has urged unions to demand higher pay from
employers to meet the rising cost of living. It says a strike would hurt an
economy in its third year of recession with unemployment at about 60 percent.
But the ZCTU, which has the support of most of Zimbabwe's 1.2 million workers,
says the government is asking workers to bail out a state oil company "notorious
for corruption" and inefficiency. The southern African country has suffered
erratic fuel supplies since December 1999 after NOCZIM'S credit lines were cut
over a Z$9 billion debt. The business community says the fuel rises will drive
up costs and force the closure of companies hit by the worst economic crisis
since independence from Britain 21 years ago. Production at commercial farms is
also expected to fall sharply this year due to a government programme of land
seizures that have severely hampered agricultural operations.

From News24 (SA), 28
June

Zim urged not to expel
reporter

London - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Zimbabwe on
Thursday to reconsider its expulsion of a British journalist, warning of
disapproval from the international community. The Daily Telegraph's Harare-based
correspondent, David Blair, said he was called before Zimbabwe's Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo and ordered to leave the country when his current work
permit expires in three weeks. "The international community will not be
impressed by any actions of the government of Zimbabwe which make it more
difficult for the international media to report what is happening there," Straw
said in a statement. Straw said he was concerned by the move and urged the
Zimbabwean government to reconsider.

Blair said his meeting with Moyo was underpinned by a feeling
of menace and the message that he was being closely watched. "He would not
reveal why he had rejected my application. I repeatedly asked for a reason and
was repeatedly rebuffed with the mantra that it was an administrative decision,"
Blair wrote in the paper. "Before I had even sat down, Moyo casually let slip a
detail about my future plans that he could only have learnt from a tapped
telephone conversation, intercepted e-mail or an informant." Blair said Moyo
ordered him to leave Zimbabwe on July 16 when his current work permit expired
but he planned to leave sooner.

Political analysts have said President Robert Mugabe - in power since the
former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980 - has launched a
campaign against the media, the judiciary and the opposition ahead of
presidential elections due early next year. In February, BBC correspondent
Joseph Winter was ordered to leave the country. Winter said that shortly after
the expulsion order a gang of security agents attacked his home, forcing him and
his young family to take refuge in the British High Commission. Uruguayan
journalist Mercedes Sayagues, a correspondent for South Africa's Mail &
Guardian newspaper, was expelled from Zimbabwe in February. After those
expulsions, Moyo denied there was an active campaign against the media, telling
Reuters Television that the government was simply applying the law.

From The Daily News (SA), 28
June

Zim spares Oppenheimer
farms

Harare - The Zimbabwean government has dropped nine farms owned
by the South African Oppenheimer mining dynasty from a list of white-owned farms
to be seized for land redistribution. "Some 180 farms, among them six owned by
foreign nationals and nine belonging to the Oppenheimer family, have been spared
from acquisition," the government-owned Herald newspaper reported. "The
de-listing comes in the wake of representations by diplomatic missions lodged
with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have them spared." Last month, South
African newspapers said Nicky Oppenheimer, non-executive deputy chairman of
mining giant Anglo American, was under pressure to give up farms for a land
reform programme after senior government officials descended on his vast Debshan
farm. The government says the Oppenheimers own a total of 960 000 hectares of
land - the size of Belgium- in Zimbabwe.

From The Daily News, 28
June

MDC blasts Mudede over Chegutu
election

The MDC on Tuesday accused the Registrar-General of
deliberately delaying the Chegutu mayoral election for fear the opposition party
would win. Learnmore Jongwe, the party’s spokesman said in an interview the
Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede should call for fresh nominations for
interested candidates. In April, High Court judge Justice Moses Chinhengo
ordered the Registrar-General to stop the election following an MDC petition
imploring the court to stop the polls, arguing that under the published notice,
they were not eligible to contest the election.

Jongwe said: "The delay in conducting elections, when viewed in
light of the court order, borders on contempt of court. What is puzzling is that
the Registrar-General was once enthusiastic to hold the polls with only two
candidates, but as soon as the High Court opened the polls to more competition,
Mudede’s enthusiasm suddenly fizzled out." On Tuesday Tobaiwa Mudede, the
Registrar-General, through his secretary, said he was busy and could not respond
to questions on the delays in the Chegutu mayoral poll.

In April, Mudede published a notice in the
government-controlled media in which he said the mayoral election for Chegutu
municipality would be held on 28 and 29 April, 2001. The notice said only
Stanley Majiri of Zanu PF and Charles Madzudzo Chiviru, an independent
candidate, were eligible to contest the poll. Mudede said the two were duly
nominated candidates when the nomination court sat on 18 October, 1999 at the
Chegutu municipal chambers. Chinhengo ordered that Mudede’s notice, which
excluded the MDC as it had not yet been formed when the nomination court sat,
was invalid and should be set aside. Jongwe said: "We have witnessed this circus
before. The unholy alliance between the Registrar-General’s office and Zanu PF
has played the same games in Bulawayo and Harare to the detriment and
frustration of the ratepayers who expect an accountable
leadership."

From Business Day (SA), 28
June

Zimbabwean healers at fore of AIDS
fight

Harare - Zimbabwe's traditional healers have become the first
and sometimes only source of comfort for many of the country's ever-growing
number of AIDS sufferers. While the world's political elite wound up an
unprecedented United Nations (UN) summit on the AIDS pandemic yesterday,
desperate Zimbabweans have turned to medicine men to fill the gap left by a
public health system on the verge of collapse. "We have members who are experts
in treating things like chronic diarrhoea, some strains of venereal diseases,
shingles, whooping cough or even tuberculosis," Peter Sibanda, secretary of the
Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers' Association (Zinatha), said. "Without
treating these (opportunistic) diseases that come with AIDS and HIV infections,
many people would die earlier, and suffer more," said Sibanda.

But the healers have their critics, some of whom charge them
with deliberately cashing in on people's misery while having no internationally
recognised medical training. Zimbabwean Health Minister Timothy Stamps has
acknowledged that abuses occur. "Some (traditional healers) are really keen to
serve the public, but there are others, especially those who claim they have a
cure (for AIDS), who are just out to cheat," Stamps said earlier this year.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by the HIV/AIDS
pandemic. Of the more than 33-million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, an
estimated 25-million are living in the world's poorest continent, according to
the UN. Health experts say that one in five Zimbabweans is living with the HI
virus and the government estimates that at least 2000 people die of AIDS each
week. The UN's children's fund, Unicef, estimates the country's life expectancy
will fall to 27 years from 44 in the next 10 years and health experts say the
country will record 0% population growth this year because of the disease.

The government cannot afford to distribute key antiretroviral
drugs on a national scale and its health system has been dogged by a shortage of
trained doctors and health workers as well as vital drugs. Against this
background, traditional healers, some of whose plants and herbs have attracted
interest from western drug firms, have been able to thrive in a population
increasingly looking for relief from their condition. Many Zinatha herbalists
are working with scientists at the University of Zimbabwe and two research
institutes in testing some AIDS cures, Sibanda said. "In Zimbabwe, we are at a
stage where we are the first port of call, not the last especially in the rural
areas where the majority of people live,' he said.

From The Spectator (UK), 29
June

Letter from
Zimbabwe

Twenty-two years after he was gunned
down, an English eccentric is being seriously considered for canonisation. South
African journalist Kerry Swift suspends disbelief and traces the story to its
source - a leper colony in rural Zimbabwe

Even in its semi-completed state Harare's new International
Airport - centrepiece of Robert Mugabe's much-vaunted Tourism Recovery Plan - is
a handsome building. It is a fitting monument to the president, whose portrait
gazes down benignly as you enter the airport and, of course, to the favoured
nephew who won the tender to build it. The irony of Harare's new airport is that
most airlines no longer fly there. Tourism has virtually collapsed thanks to
Mugabe's 'fast-track' land reform policy and the self-styled war veterans who
are implementing it by force or intimidation. Hotel occupancies, which last year
ran at 66%, are running at barely 20% this year and travelling around Zimbabwe
has become difficult due to fuel shortages, as evidenced by long queues of
vehicles at every petrol station.

Last week I braved a visit to Zimbabwe but my focus was not on
land invasions, government ministers dying in freak road accidents, rumours of
economic collapse, a pending coup or looming famine. My purpose was to visit a
leper colony at a place called Mutemwa - 'you are cut off' in the local Shona
dialect--in the Mutoko District, some 100 miles north east of Harare. I
travelled to Mutemwa to explore first hand the story of John Bradburne, the
English poet and mystic, and the lepers he befriended and served until his
violent death in September 1979.

Mutemwa has become a favoured destination for pilgrims, with
increasing numbers of cures being attributed to John Bradburne, whose cause for
canonisation by the Catholic Church is soon to be officially launched. In the
next couple of weeks a petition will be presented to the archbishop of Harare to
initiate an inquiry into Bradburne's canonisation. As with all such inquiries,
the Church is taking a cautious view, but for those who knew him well sainthood
is a fait accompli. Paschal Slevin, the Franciscan priest promoting Bradburne's
cause puts it thus: "I have no doubt that John died a martyr in his
determination to serve his friends, the lepers. If his martyrdom is accepted,
his cause for sainthood could go quite quickly".

So, who was this enigmatic Englishman? John Randal Bradburne
was born in Cumbria, the son of a high Anglican clergyman. Educated at Greshams
and commissioned into the Indian Army in 1941, he had a distinguished war
record, serving first with the Gurkhas in Malaya and then with the Chindits in
Burma. When hostilities ended Bradburne converted to Catholicism and gave up
secular life to become a pilgrim, attaching himself to various monastic orders
in Britain, Europe and the Holy Land before travelling to Rhodesia as a
missionary helper. Jesuit missionaries introduced him to Mutemwa, which housed a
large community of lepers, who at the time were living in appalling conditions
of sickness, poverty and isolation.

From the moment John Bradburne first visited Mutemwa in 1969 it
was clear his odyssey was over. Mutemwa became home and the lepers his family.
He lived among them, attending to their medical, material and spiritual needs,
all the while battling officialdom for a better deal for his severely disabled
and disadvantaged charges. Slowly but surely conditions improved at the leper
colony but by the late seventies, war had come to Rhodesia and the Mutoko
district, with its rugged mountainous terrain and hidden caves, became a hot
spot for guerrilla activity. The war crept ever closer. On the night of February
6, 1977 three Jesuits and four Dominican nuns were gunned down at St Paul's
Mission, Musami, some 30 miles from Mutemwa. Responsibility for the massacre
remains unclear but there remains strong speculation that it was part of
security force 'black ops' to discredit the guerrillas in the eyes of the Church
and the wider world. By mid-1979 the Mutoko district had become a total no-go
area and the war had made it impossible to be neutral and survive. In July Luisa
Guidotti, an Italian doctor who regularly visited the Mutemwa leper colony from
her base at the nearby All Souls Mission, was shot and killed at a security
force road block. She was travelling in a clearly marked ambulance. Earlier she
had been arrested under suspicion of aiding a wounded guerrilla soldier.

Bradburne's friends urged him to leave Mutemwa, which was now
in the heart of the conflict zone. He refused, insisting he stay with his
'family', the lepers. Then on the night of September 7, 1979 a group of
'mujibhas' - local boys who acted as the guerrillas' eyes and ears in the local
community - abducted him from his hut and marched him off into the night. Two
days after his abduction, during which the mujibhas mocked him and tried to
force him to have sex with a camp follower, Bradburne was taken before the local
guerrilla commander stationed in a cave in the nearby Inyanga Mountains. He was
accused of being an informer, but the guerrilla commander knew of Bradburne's
work with the lepers and issued instructions for his release. Bradburne began
the journey back to Mutemwa at night accompanied by a group of local villagers,
but he was not to make it home. The security officer for the guerrillas in the
area believed he had seen too much and was now a serious security risk. He
offered Bradburne the option of going to Mozambique. Bradburne's refusal, on the
grounds that the lepers needed him, was a death sentence and he was shot dead
beside the main road leading back to Mutemwa.

Villagers who witnessed the killing that night reported strange
things afterwards. They reported hearing unrecognisable singing and claimed that
a large bird hovered over the body. There was also testimony of a shaft of light
that split into three when it touched the body. At Bradburne's funeral service
in Salisbury (Harare) Cathedral, three drops of blood were reported to appear
below the coffin which then became one. The undertaker was so concerned that he
had the body checked before clerical witnesses after the service. There was no
sign of blood inside or outside the coffin and Bradburne's wounds were dry. This
incident has been verified by numerous sources. Soon after the death, two
Bateleur eagles were reported by a Jesuit priest to have landed on the grass
outside the room where John Bradburne lived before moving to Mutemwa. They
stayed for three quarters of an hour. Bateleurs are particularly shy raptors and
the Shona consider them to be messengers of God.

Now, at any time, summer or winter, local and foreign pilgrims are to be
found on the granite slopes of Mount Chigona, which soars high above Mutemwa
leper station like an African Ayers Rock. They come to pray and seek spiritual
favours from the highborn Englishman who lived and died for the lepers who still
live in the shadow of what has come to be called the 'Holy Place' - Bradburne's
Mountain.

HARARE, Zimbabwe--Zimbabwe's government
dramatically increased the number of farms it is targeting for confiscation, a
move farmers' leaders said means almost all white-owned farms are set to be
nationalized. The government said last July it planned to nationalize
3,000 of about 5,000 white farms in order to hand them over to landless blacks.
A new list of 2,030 properties published Friday brought the number to about
4,500, the Commercial Farmers Union said. The list in the state-run
Herald newspaper contained some duplications. Farmers' union spokesman
Jerry Grant said farms owned by 95 percent of the group's 4,000 members are now
listed for confiscation without compensation. The new listings came
ahead of a July 1 deadline set by the Supreme Court for the government to
restore law and order on farms occupied by ruling party militants. The
court said the government's farm seizure plan was illegal under its own land
reform laws and called on officials to come up with "a workable program of land
reform." Last month, ruling party legislators passed a law forbidding
the forcible removal of ruling-party militants and squatters from more than
1,700 white-owned farms they have occupied for the past year. The law
allowed occupiers to remain on land they seized until they are allocated plots
on nationalized farms. In a sweeping ruling against President Robert
Mugabe's land seizure program, the Supreme Court said in December that the
government had persistently abused constitutional rights and broken the law in
farming districts. It said farmers and their workers had been denied protection
from violence and intimidation. The court acknowledged the need for
land reform in a nation where 4,000 whites, mostly the descendants of
colonial-era British and South Africa settlers, own one-third to the productive
land. But it said land redistribution must done legally. Six court
rulings against the government on land have been ignored, the chief justice was
forced to take early retirement, effective July 1, and two other judges have
resigned. Mugabe says the occupations are a justified protest against
unfair white land ownership. He insists Britain, the former colonial power, and
foreign donors must provide any compensation to farmers for land he says
colonial settlers stole from blacks.

The Vienna-based International Press Institute sent a strongly worded letter
of protest to the office of President Robert Mugabe inviting him to intervene
personally to extend the permit. It said the refusal was part of a long series
of encroachments on journalists' rights.

The letter came as a pro-government newspaper, The Herald, published a
cartoon depicting The Telegraph threatening to "bomb" the Mugabe regime with
adverse publicity.

Johann Fritz, IPI's director, wrote to Mr Mugabe: "IPI would ask Your
Excellency to remove the restrictive measures that impede the work of foreign
journalists.

"By doing so, you will be ensuring that foreign journalists are no longer
prevented from entering Zimbabwe and upholding the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, article 19, which states 'everyone has the right to
seek, receive and impart information'."

In a positive development, 180 farms scheduled by the Zimbabwean government
for forcible reallocation to landless peasants were dropped from the list.

It is understood that the government had been subjected to heavy lobbying by
the owners. Nine of the farms are owned by Nicky Oppenheimer, deputy chairman of
Anglo American, the industrial conglomerate.

Washington - A top US official says the
political and economic crisis confronting Zimbabwe "must be laid squarely at the
feet" President Robert Mugabe and his party.

Walter Kansteiner, who heads the State Department's Africa bureau, said the
United States cannot have normal relations with Zimbabwe "until the violence and
intimidation are ended."

Kansteiner's remarks were prepared for delivery to a hearing of the Senate
Foreign Relations subcommittee on African affairs.

He accused Zimbabwe's ruling party and its supporters of putting significant
pressure on the independent media, the judiciary, elements of civil society and
the political opposition "to counter any activities" that threaten its grip on
power.

Kansteiner said the real test of Zimbabwe's commitment to political openness
"will come in the months ahead, as Zimbabwe prepares for elections in 2002."

Harare - Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Simba
Makoni said on Thursday the country had run out of foreign currency reserves but
that devaluing the local dollar without supporting measures to boost exports
would not help.

"Our balance of payments position is precarious. We have practically run out
of foreign currency reserves and we are turning every (US) dollar that comes in
back out to effect a certain payment," Makoni told business leaders and
officials at a meeting of the National Economic Consultative Forum.

Makoni revised the country's capital account deficit for 2000 to US$336m from
the $401m he projected in his budget last November. The Reserve Bank has not
published Zimbabwe's capital account figures for 1998 and 1999 but Makoni said a
$102m surplus was recorded in 1997.

He admitted that the government had not followed through on a policy unveiled
last August to routinely adjust the Zimbabwe dollar to reflect the country's
inflation differentials with its main trading partners.

But he added that another devaluation on its own would not be the answer to
the country's deepening economic crisis.

"The debate in my view should really not excite us so much about whether we
devalue or not. The debate should focus on how can we stimulate more activity to
generate more foreign currency," he said.

Despite repeated calls for a devaluation, the government has kept the
Zimbabwe dollar at 55 to the greenback for the past seven months after allowing
it to officially depreciate by 31% between August and November 2000.

The currency is trading at 150 to the dollar on an unofficial parallel
market.

"Previous devaluations have not yielded results because we haven't been
consistent, we haven't been regular," Makoni added.

He said the government would work with industry to revive the ailing tourism,
mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors and boost foreign currency
earnings.

The government would also halve the annual holiday allowance for individuals
to $2500 to help preserve foreign exchange.

Last week Makoni admitted at a tobacco farmers' conference the local currency
was overvalued against the US dollar, but said the government had not reached
consensus on a devaluation.

On Thursday he said the government was also considering allowing direct
trading in foreign currency on tobacco auction floors and letting growers retain
a proportion of the earnings.

Producers say while they are required to sell their tobacco crop at an
official rate of Z$55 per US unit, they have to buy foreign currency for
imported inputs at more than double that rate from the parallel market.

Analysts say President Robert Mugabe's government, struggling with an
economic recession and an acute foreign currency shortage, is now wary of
stoking inflation with a devaluation.

"IT'S war. Messy, brutal and fought to
win." "What should our response be? To fight, to fight and to fight again."
These aren't quotes from anywhere near Zimbabwe. They're quotes, several months
old, from a leader article in the UK Farmers' Weekly, because British
farmers are doing battle, in a very different way, with a recalcitrant
government. True, the British farming crisis is largely unlike the crisis in
Zimbabwe. Britain may have a government contemptuous of rural communities in
general and farmers in particular, but it hasn't stooped to killing people.

Still, it's interesting that Britain's
farmers fight back through protest and public relations. It's also obvious that
they're united.

The situation in Zimbabwe is very
different, but there are lessons to be learnt. It would be a supreme arrogance
(and extraordinarily stupid) to say that Zimbabweans have nothing to learn from
disputes afflicting agricultural communities elsewhere in the world. Of course,
if Zimbabwe were France, Harare's streets would be suffering a surfeit of dumped
produce and endless traffic jams caused by herds of livestock invading the city
streets.

That may not be the solution. However,
it's equally obvious that no homegrown solution has been found in Zimbabwe.
Farmers have grown tired of constant promises, of hearing that a solution is
"just around the corner". True, no such promises have been made by organisations
that represent farmers, at least not publicly. But people on the sidelines have
been making them, and making them for over a year. There has been no evidence,
not a scintilla of movement, to suggest that the self-appointed movers and
shakers in the agricultural industry are taking us forward. We have been hearing
that "things are happening behind the scenes" for too long, especially as closer
inspection reveals that there is nothing happening behind the scenes - or
nothing promising.

At some point in any negotiation
process, good faith or trust has to come into play, but Zimbabwe is sadly
lacking in either of these qualities. Instead, farmers have been pinning their
hopes on people who know people. That's all very well, but the people in
positions of power in turn work for other people, or report directly to the
president himself, and no amount of good will on the shop floor of government
will sway Mr Mugabe's opinions - and in today's Zimbabwe, all government is the
shop floor.

Still, there's lots of good news too.
From the very outset of the Zimbabwean crisis, this paper has said that nothing
can be viewed in isolation. This is not a farmer's problem, it's no longer even
a national one. There are some, motivated by greed, arrogance or ignorance, who
believe that organised agriculture can solve its own problems, and that the
problems facing other communities are for those communities to sort out. To use
a good old Zimbabweanism, "Sorry for that." There are some problems that you can
neither talk nor buy your way out of - and this is one of them.

What may have started, superficially at
least (for this was never about land) as a farmers' problem, rapidly became a
national problem, then a regional one and finally a cause for some very serious
international concern. There may be enough money outside Zimbabwe to resolve the
crisis on farms, enough to compensate farmers who have lost their land, but that
money will remain outside Zimbabwe until all of Zimbabwe's problems are
resolved. Anyone who truly believes he will be compensated for land lost while
people are being beaten in the townships is deluded.

Sometimes one has to wonder whom to
believe. The people who promise money that can be found, or the diplomats and
bureaucrats, from whose coffers the money will come, who're saying there won't
be one cent until the rule of law is re-established. It is important to
understand that they say Zimbabwe, not Zimbabwe's farms. Consider how very
unlikely it is that these important people would publicly refuse to provide
finance while doing secret deals with a pariah regime. The only allies Zimbabwe
has left are impoverished and discredited totalitarian regimes, big on promises
but small on delivery. That leaves the western democracies and, of course, the
Bretton Woods organisations. They've promised to deliver - just as soon as
democracy is restored, anarchy brought to an end and good governance implemented
in Zimbabwe.

So… that's the good news -
though it will get worse before it gets better. How farmers chose to express
their displeasure is their business, just as it's their business to choose how
to deal with the lawlessness affecting their businesses. Whom they pin their
hopes on is also their business, but the one thing no one in Zimbabwe can do is
believe that he can eradicate problems on an individual by individual basis. To
do so is doubly foolish because not only is it immoral, it is also destined to
spectacular failure. And while at the beginning of this crisis last year it was
important for farmers to have unity of purpose, now that has expanded: it is the
entire country that requires a united approach to ending the madness. To a large
extent that has already happened. Strangely, outside the dwindling ranks of hard
line ZANU - PF politics, about the only people who aren't united are to be found
in the hidebound environs of business - some of it agricultural. Quite why is a
mystery, unless as the opposition suggests, they too are on the gravy train and
dependent on political patronage for their continued success. Whatever the case,
they are doing their country a disservice and should consider moving themselves
into line with current opinion.

THE tobacco industry is caught up in a
spiral of economic and political problems outside its control, which are
threatening its survival, and early indications are that this could result in
20% slump in production. At the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association annual congress
this week, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Dr Simba Makoni, further
dampened the spirits of tobacco growers when he admitted he does not have
answers to many of the problems confronting farmers.

What concerned most farmers was
government's apparent failure to implement many of the well-meaning policies on
the ground that would facilitate the growth, not only of the tobacco industry,
but of agriculture as a whole.

Consensus among the 200 delegates to
the ZTA congress was that government had in place policies that could facilitate
growth of the tobacco industry and a transparent land reform. However, many
wondered why government was ignoring the policies, which it formulated. The main
threat to viability of farmers was the violent and chaotic land reform, coal
shortages, fuel shortages, lack of bank finance and exchange rate.

In the coming season, Zimbabwe has the
capacity to produce as much 220mkg and maintain its market share against heavy
competition from Brazil. However, in view of the problems currently bedevilling
agriculture in Zimbabwe, Brazil was said to be looking at ways of capitalising
of these.

ZTA President Mr Kobus Joubert told
delegates more than 80 farms had been stopped from preparing their lands for
tobacco and in some instances seedbeds have been destroyed.

James Colborne of Banket/Ayrshre
district said Zimbabwe's potential of maintaining its world market share was in
jeopardy following the listing of 715 tobacco producing farms, with a combined
hectarage of 31 675, for compulsory acquisition by the government. This, he
warned, could prejudice the country of potential foreign exchange earnings to
the tune of US$161 million.

"The potential loss of production will
have serious consequences for our market share and for the desperately needed
foreign currency and will leave a pool of disaffected, unemployed labourers. We
will lose a market share that we may never recover." said Colborne.

Tobacco Trade Association president, Mr
Jim van Heerden, said the next season's crop should not be smaller than last
season's if Zimbabwe still wanted to maintain its market share on the
international market.

Jourbet said farmers needed clarity on
the land acquisition, macro-economic policies and labour. He said the aim was to
plant at least 72 000 ha but this would require government assistance in
creating the enabling environment of viability and confidence that the farmers
disparately need." With mining and tourism depressed our country needs tobacco's
foreign exchange earnings all the more," he said.

CFU director, David Hasluck asked Dr
Makoni why the government was not implementing its very clear policy on the
exchange rate agreed to last year, and policies on land and social development.
In response, Dr Makoni only said, "I do not have the answers to all those
questions. We are in a crisis and I accept we have a job to do. I accept my part
to do that job. This crisis is not economic but it is a political crisis. I
don't have an answer 10 months in office as to why we are unable to implement
those polices."

He said there had been crisis before
but people and their leaders had come together to resolve those crisis. He said
the current situation required the same unity and commitment of the people and
their leaders to rally together.

"The situation is a crisis but can be solved. Land
has become a symbol of the crisis. Government and all other stakeholders in the
economy should come together to solve the issue," he said adding that now was
not the time of apportioning of blame but of shared responsibility and
patriotism.

TIMB board divided
over 'dubious decision'

AT the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association
(ZTA) congress, it emerged that the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)
is divided over its decision to allocate two sales teams per floor. Despite a
belated decision to allocate the seventh sales team to the largest player on the
market, the Tobacco Sales Floor, the earlier decision had already caused a lot
of harm, industry sources said.

Farmers who were not happy by TIMB's
move which they said amounted to "over regulating" the selling system decided to
lobby government to ensure that the membership of the TIMB reflected the value
to the nation of the output of its members. Some of the board members came out
in the open and said that the decision was carried out against their wish and
they further appealed to have the board overhauled to reflect the composition of
the industry's stakeholders'.

Dave Sandeman, ZTA president and board
member stressed that membership of the TIMB must understand the tobacco industry
and any decisions the board makes must be responsible, rational and
accountable.

He said if the board failed in its
responsibilities, it must be removed and there should be a mechanism to remove
it but, unfortunately, this remained a prerogative of the minister of
agriculture who appoints the board. Mr Jim Van Heerden, also a TIMB board
member, agreed with Mr Sandeman.

However, Zimbabwe Farmers' Union vice
president, Mr Bvukumbwe Mashingaidze, defended the TIMB decision. He told The
Farmer that he would stand up for the decision as it was to protect the
minority players in the industry and facilitate equal distribution of the
proceeds of the industry.

He said ZTA was opposed to the decision
by the TIMB because it has a stake in TSF, which was prejudiced by this
decision.

Farmers said the TIMB had gone out of
its mandate, which is to maintain an orderly marketing of tobacco and provide
prompt, efficient and high quality service to growers and auction
floors.

While the coming of a new auction
floor, the Zimbabwe Tobacco Auction Centre, was a welcome development, many felt
it had to fight for a position on the market.

"Growers are being subjected to the
dubious decision of the TIMB to interfere in the process of orderly marketing,
by imposing an indefensible quota system. This has resulted in lost production
time for the tobacco processors and delayed employment for the casual labour,"
said a farmer Mr James Colborne.

He said the floor most affected by the
forced cut in its market share was now faced with increased costs, which would
inevitably result in job losses for skilled and experienced workers.

The delayed rate of sale of tobacco as
a result of the TIMB decision has disrupted the production schedules in the
factories and on the farms and has increased interest costs to the growers and
government.

"If the TIMB was paying the salaries of
the buyers, that would be morally defensible but as they do not, it is a clear
case of interference in a market and taking the role of economic arbiter which
is clearly out of their intended role." said Colborne.

Tobacco farmers want
direct US dollar payment

TOBACCO farmers in Zimbabwe have said
that they want to be paid directly in US dollars, as this will benefit both the
government and the farmers. Farmers from Bindura/Shamva district urged the
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association to further intensify efforts to obtain payment for
tobacco in US dollars.

The farmers said if they were paid in
US dollars, this would lead to improved viability and boost confidence. Tobacco
growers would not hold on to their tobacco in anticipation of devaluation, they
said, while forex inflows would be faster, with an alternative to offshore
finance and lower interest rates.

Farmers complain that inputs are paid
for on the black market rate while sales are conducted at the official, but
seriously over-valued, leading to major viability problems.

Tobacco growers have for months been
calling for a devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar, though the government has
refused to let the currency slide.

"The Zimbabwe dollar distorts the
economics of growing next year's crop and ignores the reality of the parallel
market exchange rate which has now reached Z$150:US$1.The only way to increase
economic viability for the grower is to decrease the value of the Zimbabwe
dollar, either through official devaluation or through growers being allowed
Foreign Currency Accounts," said farmers' representative James
Colborne.

He said that the argument that
devaluation would not increase the inflow of US dollars for this season was
correct, but the lack of devaluation would seriously impact on the ability of
tobacco farmers to go ahead and produce the same or bigger crop next
year.

Finance and Economic Development
Minister Dr Simba Makoni said government was aware of the concerns of security
and viability that growers were facing. He said, "We all accept viability of
agriculture needs to be assured. The exchange rate is an important factor and
should have been addressed two months before sales started."

He said in the last six months there
have been extensive consultations with stakeholders on the way forward with the
exchange rate. "I still believe in the exchange rate policy announced last year
and the other economic ministers are with me. It is clearly discriminatory with
a few people trading at Z$55. I assure you we continue to strive for consensus
on the exchange rate," said Dr Makoni.

Dr Makoni made it clear that there was
no consensus on the proposals to devalue. His attempts to have cabinet approve
the devaluation were thwarted.

The government have in place the 20%
forex retention scheme for inputs procurement by tobacco farmers. Dr Makoni said
he was examining the proposal to enable growers receive forex directly form the
tobacco sales.

Currently tobacco prices are quoted in
US dollars but this is converted into Zimbabwe dollars using artificial and
prejudicial exchange rate.

Tobacco farmers said they were direct
exporters just like other exporters of other agricultural commodities but the
government did not view them as such.

They also called on the government to
scrap the tobacco levy as they felt they were being taxed for producing the
crop. Instead they called on the government to put more incentives to encourage
increased production rather than taxing them.

Lime plant back on
stream

ZIMBABWEAN cement producer, Circle
Cement, has re-commissioned its agricultural lime plant, shut down two years ago
after residents of neighbouring Mabvuku/Tafara suburb complained of excessive
dust emissions into the environment.

Circle managing director, Mr Jabulani
Mavimba, told guests at a ceremony to re-commission the plant that a shortage of
agricultural lime on the market had prompted the company to refurbish and
re-commission the plant. The plant has a capacity to produce 4 000 tonnes of
lime per month.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Mr Ngoni Masoka, who represented
Minister Joseph Made at the ceremony, urged the company to become involved in
training small holder farmers currently being resettled under the fast track
resettlement programme proper use of chemicals such as agricultural
lime.

"There is need for training farmers on
the importance of proper application of lime. It is my hope that Circle Cement
will complement the efforts of my Ministry's extension agents in publicizing to
small holder farmers the usefulness of lime application in the fields," he
said.

So far, according to Mr Masoka,
government had resettled 109 372 families on 3.5 million hectares of land as at
15 June, and many more would be resettled by the end of the year.

Agricultural lime is suited to all
crops planted on heavy and sandy soils in the medium rainfall zones and all
soils in high rainfall zones. The crops, which require agricultural lime,
include cotton, maize, coffee, soya beans, groundnuts and tobacco.

However, experts say because the amount
of lime required to neutralize soil acidity varies with soil texture,
agricultural lime should only be applied when recommended, on the basis of an
analysis of a truly representative soil sample.

Ploughing contestants
persevere

Continuing disruptions of farming
activities by war veterans and other invaders on commercial farms and the
government's discredited fast track resettlement programme have, once again,
played havoc with the National Ploughing Championships, organizers
said.

A traditional host of the contest,
Barwick, one of the oldest Intensive Conservation Areas (ICA) decided not to
host the competition. The National Ploughing Championships were held by the
Wenimbi ICA where they were hosted by Ox and Les Hacking at their Arcadia
Farm.

"Due to the various problems facing
farming currently, the participation in the local matches were lower than
normal," the organizers said in a statement. "However, four areas persevered and
held very successful matches."

The national contest had 11 finalists
competing. Two of these will be competing in Denmark in September while another
two are slated to travel to Switzerland next year.